DEARLY BELOVED
by Shirayukiouji
Summary: BELOVED means "the one who is loved", "lover". Soubi, Nisei and Seimei share this name. They're bound by it. A fateful entanglement of interpersonal relationships, however, makes their name seem painfully ironic sooner rather than later.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Slowly, tiredly, he opened his eyes. The vibration of his mobile phone had interrupted his sleep.  
All but automatically, he reached for the device on the nightstand next to him, absentmindedly pressing it to his ear.  
"Yes?"  
Heavy silence on the other end of the line caused the fog in his mind to dissolve slowly, but surely.  
He sat up.  
"Hello?"  
"Listen carefully. This is your last order", the voice said.

No other voice had ever been as familiar to him as this one.  
He loved it. As much as he loved the one it belonged to.  
Even if all he ever got in return was rejection.  
"I'm listening", he said, trying not to let his agitation transpire.  
His last order? Why last order? What was he supposed to do?  
Almost getting lost in the uncomfortable silence, he wasn't prepared for the two words that were going to change everything.  
"Leave, Nisei."

His eyes went wide. All of a sudden, he was wide awake.  
"What did you just-", he blurted out, but the phone call had already been ended by the other party.  
He stared at the small screen that threw its cold white light upon his face.  
He should leave?  
For one moment he considered the possibility of calling back - until he thought better of it.  
There was no use. If Seimei didn't want to talk to him, he didn't stand a chance.  
Lethargy had taken hold of his body just a few moments later. He was still staring at the screen that had been showing the name of his Sacrifice, his beloved, his god only minutes ago, turning dark and drowning the entire world around him in blackness.

His eyes lost focus.  
Not a chance.


	2. Chapter 1

He found himself facing two other men - tall, slender and aloof. Despite their physical closeness, there seemed to be a void between them, so deep it was almost tangible - even for a stranger. He looked into their eyes. Blue, but of entirely different hues. They almost seemed like night and day. While the eyes of the first reminded him of cold steel - greyish, sharp, but soulless like a doll's, it was the deep blue of the other man's irises that felt like daggers through his chest. His gaze was hypnotic, piercing, leaving him unable to look away. He felt like he had fallen into a trance.

"What's your name?", he was asked by the first who looked at him with anything but warmth. The inner resistance he felt was immediate. He answered the question regardless. "Akame Nisei." "Not that one", the man replied in an undertone of dismissal that didn't slip Nisei's attention. He smiled politely, not even trying to make it seem genuine - showing the other his ill will more openly this way than he would have had he looked at him with arrogance. "What name are you talking about if not the one in my student records?", he asked, defiance dripping from his voice like poison from an assassin's syringe. "The name that's written on your body", the second man replied much more calmly, but in an equally cold voice. The sound of if was even more attractive than his eyes. Nisei paused. He didn't understand.

"I told you, Seimei. It can't be him. I can't even feel him." The man didn't seem to even consider looking at his companion, proceeding to pierce Nisei with his gaze instead. Nisei let him, enthralled by his ultramarine eyes that almost made him want to pledge allegiance to the handsome stranger. He felt the man's warm fingers around his wrist before a surge of energy went through his entire body. "I can. System activated."

All of a sudden, large, black letters appeared on the back of his hand, forming the word "BELOVED". They seemed to unsettle the blond man that had escorted Seimei to their meeting, probably because the same word was written on, no, carved into his neck. "That's...", he whispered, voice on the edge of desperation as he looked at Seimei's hand that was identical with Nisei's. "...impossible." His sacrifice had just slipped from his grasp. Seimei had found his true Sentouki.

When Soubi tried to push Nisei aside, his hands couldn't even touch him and all of a sudden, his entire body became transparent. He stumbled and fell, right through Nisei without the other one noticing. It was as if he ceased to exist. Helplessly, he looked at his sacrifice one last time before Seimei's blue floodlights shone a hole into his chest, felling him and rendering him unconscious before the ground gave way as well as he and everything around him was sucked into a void he didn't even know existed.


	3. Chapter 2

He never made it past this point. Nisei never learned what became of him and Seimei when Soubi's world collapsed around them. He was always awake by no later than this point. Staring out of the window, he watched the clouds trying to hide the moon, with the moon fighting back like it was trying not to get crushed by something much bigger than them. The crescent was narrow and grey. Its light barely made it through to him, spreading silently across the room while Nisei whose phone had fallen to the ground lost himself in memories.

 _"Soubi?"_  
 _The dark-haired man smiled coldly._  
 _"He loves me."_  
 _Moving gracefully as usual, Seimei turned his back on Nisei, starting to slowly unbutton his silken shirt.  
"It's nothing unusual, though. He can't help it. He's a Sentouki. A weapon that belongs to me."_  
 _Even if Nisei couldn't see his face, he knew that Seimei was still smiling coldly as he spoke._  
 _"I do not love you!", Nisei protested, his gaze directed right at his sacrifice. The black silk slid down the latter's smooth, white shoulders, revealing his back and upper arms that no one had ever dared to touch. Nisei struggled to keep himself from taking the one step that still kept them apart and doing just that. To trace Seimei's spine with his fingertips, to strip his upper body wholly, to touch his pale skin with his lips..._  
 _"Resistance is futile, Nisei", he heard the young man's reserved response before he removed the black fabric entirely, turning around just enough to still block the view of his bare chest, smiling at Nisei that it almost drove him insane._  
 _Seimei was immaculate. Completely untouched._  
 _His body seemed to be sacred. Nobody had ever been given the chance to touch it, or just as much as come close to it. Nobody. Wishing he was still a virgin himself, Nisei looked at the soft ears and luxuriant tail that started to move from left to right and back whenever Seimei tensed or got the slightest bit nervous. It was a subtle gesture, but a threatening one. He didn't even have to speak to make himself clear. As a quiet person, Seimei seemed to prefer this kind of communication._

The moonlight brushed Nisei's pale cheeks like a lover's gentle fingers as he silently formed his sacrifice's name with his lips.  
"Why am I to go? Please tell me..."

 _"You aren't any different from him."_  
 _Seimei turned around fully now, approaching him slowly._  
 _"Both of you you are mine", he smiled coldly, decreasing the distance between Nisei's face and his own._  
 _"The name BELOVED chains you to me. The both of you."_  
 _Seimei was so close to his Sentouki now that the latter was able to perceive his scent._  
 _Nisei didn't step back. With slightly parted lips he stared at Seimei's, too distracted to even hear the words that passed them._  
 _All he could feel, all he could think of was the urge to kiss him._  
 _"...mine. Body and soul."_  
 _The next moment, Seimei walked past him, disappearing behind the bathroom door.  
The only thing Nisei, who had turned around to him immediately, could see of him now was the black silk on the floor.  
He bent down slowly._  
 _"No... I do not love you", he whispered, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath, inhaling the scent adherent to the shirt he held in his hands._


	4. Chapter 3

Blackness surrounded him.  
Pressed his body to the ground.  
The only source of light was the mobile phone clasped by his right hand, dimly illuminating Seimei's pale face as darkness and silence seemed to block the door of the room, keeping everyone out.

He was alone.  
Finally alone.

His blue eyes focused on the screen until the characters displayed on it became a blur.  
Until his Sentouki disappeared.  
His former Sentouki.  
Nisei.

At this thought, the nausea he had just managed to suppress with all his might came back all at once and he forced himself to breathe steadily.  
He could smell the blood his hand was bedaubed in.

The blood that had chewed a grotesque pattern into the carpet.  
The blood that had ruined his clothes.  
The blood he didn't even notice anymore.

Closing his eyes, he exhaled audibly, shakily.  
He flipped his mobile phone shut.  
Then it was quiet.


	5. Chapter 4

_When the lights were turned on, Nisei woke up from his restless sleep. He was soaked with sweat._  
 _Before he had the chance to bring order to his thoughts, however, and process the state he was in, he already felt two hands next to his face, sinking into the pillow._  
 _"Seimei", he whispered breathlessly._  
 _He didn't dare moving as his sacrifice was dangerously close to him. So close that Nisei could see his deep blue eyes burning with contempt. "What's wrong?", he forced himself to ask as he avoided Seimei's piercing gaze, looking aside._  
 _As if on command, Seimei pulled the blanket aside, scanning Nisei's body briefly. He looked at his face._  
 _"You were moaning."_  
 _At this very second, Nisei felt it, too:_  
 _He was aroused._  
 _Taking a deep and panicked breath, he reached for the blanket to cover himself again._  
 _Blood was rushing into his cheeks while adrenaline flashed through every fiber of his being._  
 _He prayed for Seimei to leave._  
 _But he didn't leave._

 _Nisei shivered._  
 _He didn't know what to do._  
 _He was petrified._  
 _"What did you dream about?", Seimei inquired, looking at him with a cold expression in his eyes._  
 _"You were moaning my name."_  
 _Filled with dread, the young man stared desperately at the wall, trying to avoid Seimei's gaze._  
 _His cheeks were burning._  
 _This had to be a nightmare._  
 _Couldn't he wake up already?_  
 _... Couldn't Seimei just leave?_  
 _"Tell me", demanded the latter, preying the blanket away from him completely._  
 _"What did you dream about?"_  
 _Nisei had turned to the side immediately, pulling his knees up when the last protection of his privacy was taken away._  
 _He was grateful for his long hair to cover his face._  
 _"Nothing", he whispered breathlessly._  
 _Couldn't Seimei just leave already?_

 _"Did we have sex?", he asked unceremoniously._  
 _"No!", Nisei countered instantly._  
 _"Did we have sex?", Seimei asked again, slowly, insistently._  
 _Nisei swallowed, keeping his silence._  
 _He felt Seimei's hand on his right shoulder, how he was grabbed and pressed down, so his upper body was turned to his sacrifice again, his back flat on the mattress._  
 _He was aware of the fact that, despite the position of his knees, all of him was put on display for the other now._  
 _He turned his head aside and closed his eyes._  
 _This entire situation resembled a nightmare._  
 _He felt Seimei's grip on his shoulder tighten increasingly and expected his heart to break through his rib cage any second._  
 _"Did we have..."_  
 _"Yes, for fuck's sake!", Nisei panted desperately, interrupting Seimei to keep the man from making him listen to it a third time._  
 _Seimei snorted deprecatingly._  
 _"Disgusting."_  
 _Nisei bit his bottom lip._  
 _He failed to swallow once more._  
 _"So you long to be the one I'm giving my ears to?"_  
 _Nisei remained silent, heart hammering in his chest._  
 _Seimei continued: "Even though you - like you said - do not even love me, you still want me to defile my body with someone like you?"_  
 _Seimei gave a sarcastic laugh._  
 _"You do not even possess your ears anymore._  
 _Even if I loved you, I wouldn't sleep with you."_

 _Nisei didn't move at all, just lying there with his head turned aside and a worry line parting his brows on his forehead; black hair spread out on a white bed sheet._  
 _He was unable to reply._  
 _Finally, Seimei let go of his shoulder, straightening his back._  
 _"There's no point in pretending, Nisei._  
 _Your subconscious speaks volumes."_  
 _Seimei was right._  
 _There was no point._  
 _He had fallen for him the day they had met._  
 _"But you're hoping in vain."_  
 _Seimei turned away._  
 _Walking towards the door, he urged: "Don't be too loud at what you're about to do. I wish to sleep."_  
 _His slender fingers touched the light switch._  
 _"Good night, Nisei."_  
 _With this, he closed the door behind him, leaving his Sentouki to himself._  
 _Nisei exhaled haltingly._


	6. Chapter 5

Slowly, he slipped out of his state of shock, picking up his phone from the floor. He held it tightly in his hand. The dim light coming from the small screen was mirrored in his glowing red eyes while he reread the displayed data on it over and over again. His battery was almost depleted.  
He read them a third, fourth and fifth time, as if this ritual had the power to change anything at all. As if he could undo Seimei's order that way.

Date. Time. Duration.  
They had only been connected for 16 seconds.  
Just 16 seconds. What could be destroyed in 16 seconds?

Name.  
Nisei read it softly to himself.  
"Aoyagi Seimei."  
For minutes, he stared at the four characters.  
He had to call him back.  
He had to.  
Maybe he could reach him.  
Maybe he could change anything.

He was Seimei's Sentouki. Unlike Soubi, even the one that was meant to be his. The both of them - Seimei and Nisei - were BELOVED. His sacrifice couldn't just send him away. The natural bond of a unit destined to be together couldn't just be broken. Soubi might have been abandoned by him, unconditionally accepting his fate in his infinite devotion to Seimei, but Nisei wouldn't just sit there and take it.

He was not Soubi. He wasn't a fake. He was Seimei's true Sentouki.  
He would not go.  
Not without a destination.  
Not without a reason.

"Why do you want me to go, Seimei?", he heard himself ask.  
"Where to do you want me to go?"

They shared a big, tastefully furnished apartment by now because it was easier having the other part of the unit near at all times. Seimei being close to his Sentouki and Nisei...

 _"You are_ _ **my**_ _sacrifice, so let me fight against him!"  
"You are mistaken, Nisei. I am not __**your**_ _sacrifice, you are_ _ **my**_ _Sentouki.  
You may not have thought this through like you should have in your nervousness, therefore be fogiven.  
So? Where's your apology, Nisei?"_

With his heart throbbing in his chest, he hit the redial button before raising the small device to his ear. No. Sacrifice and Sentouki could not be separated by anyone. Not even if that person was Aoyagi Seimei, holding god status.

The free line signal could be heard. Nisei felt his hand shaking slightly and all of a sudden, he didn't even know what he wanted to say anymore. He grew more anxious by the second. What was he supposed to say if Seimei picked up? What was he supposed to do if he didn't? Still the free line signal. Discomfort slowly tightened his throat at the actual prospect of never seeing Seimei again. He heard the signal one more time, then the line was busy.

Seimei had blocked the call?  
Nisei stared at his phone. He tried again immediately, but this time, the line was busy from the start.  
"You can't be serious!", he yelled, trying it a third time. This time, he only reached his sacrifice's voice mail. Before he could even think about trying to call him a fourth time, his phone turned dark. His battery was depleted.

He threw his phone against the wall with full force.  
Tears ran down his cheeks.  
The device was broken, but there hadn't been any use for it anymore anyway. The only reason he had possessed it at all was to be available to Seimei at all times, no matter where he went.  
"Well, then...", he murmured to himself and clenched his fists. He rose from the bed and wiped his face.  
"As you wish, Seimei!"


End file.
